Eparti VII
Eparti VII (b. 1644) was the 96th King of Elam and 50th Emperor of Chedorlaomer reigning 1601-1589 BC. He was the son of Emperor Dumudar Acina. In 1600 he defended the Tahruwa against a further Mitanni and Hittite advance. His forces fought a very long battle with the Hittites at the Fort of Apiziašu at Birtu'um. The Emperor himself was present in the fort and was severly wounded. Three hundred men and seventeen are said to have willingly sacrificed their lives to alow the Emperor to escape the fort and receive treatment. After the battle the Emperor had the dead counted, their bodies collected, identified and then he ordered two shrines to be built at the fort of Apiziašu. The first shrine held 315 statues, based on the appearance of the deceased soldiers from Elam, and bearing their names. The Shrine is usually called The Shrine of Halbi-rindah, based on the statue of Halbi-rindah of Awan being in the center niche of the room. The soldiers were then deified as a group, named The Gods of the Fort Apiziašu. The second shrine, called The Shrine of Anu of Šahba and il-banu was a shrine to Anu, with statues celebrating the two Chaldean soldiers from the tribe of Bit-Yakin who were among the 317 dead, namely Šahba and il-banu. That same year, after his wounds healed, Eparti stormed the Pro-Hittite Mitanni capital of Taidu where he killed the Pro Hittite Mitanni King Artešupa, reclaiming the city of Taidu for King Artashumara I. The Pro Hittite forces retreated to the their new capital, the city of Kahat, which the Emperor besieged five times before it fell in 1597, reuniting all the Mitanni lands under the Pro-Imperial Mitanni King Artashumara I. After the vicory he had the soldiers of Artešupa rebuild the walls of Kahat before they were set free. He also had 40 Babylonian merchants who dealt with the Pro-Hittite Mitanni Kings at Kahat arrested. Twenty of them were executed following the conquest, twenty were sent to trial in Babylon. Within a week nineteen were executed, but one, Zamašba Mar Belšunu, a noble of Babylon and a member of the great merchant clan of Belšunu, was spared and given royal pardon by King Gulkishar VI. Of Babylon. Eparti VII was enraged, but eventually reached a compromise with King Gulkishar, whereby Zamašba Mar Belšunu was banned under penalty of death to enter Elam, as well as any member of his family. In 1595 he conqured the Hittite city of Šimala. In 1594 he defended the Kingdom of Mama against the Hittites, defeating the Hittite army at Harikuna. In 1593 he crushed a rebellion of a part of the Bit-Amukani at Kibšu, executing the rival King of the Bit-Amukani Hariku, and confirming the rulership over the tribe to King Nadbia. In 1592 he was the first King and Emperor to organise Elam into provinces, instead of the more chaotic organisation based around kingships and tribes used until then. The Kingships of the cities were protected under this reorganisation, but were simply included into the administrative structure of a Province. He divided Elam into 15 Provinces and the two autonomous Kingdoms of Elammat and Warahshe. In 1590 he took the city of Buruddum, until then a merchant city under the rule of the Hittites. He died at Susa in 1589 and was succeeded by his son Eparti VIII.